


the kids are (maybe not) alright

by smugmaster



Category: One Piece
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Minor Character Death, Poor Luffy, i lobe my autistic pirate son, idfk is ace a minor character?? ?, jinbei the awkward dad friend, mentions of the ace and the rest of the mugiwaras, some nice hurt/comfort for ur soul, these tags are a mess sorry, this happens after luffy counts up his nakama and before rayleigh appears, this might become a series later ha, toxic masculinity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-07
Updated: 2016-12-07
Packaged: 2018-09-07 05:09:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8784367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smugmaster/pseuds/smugmaster
Summary: luffy mourns ace. jinbei tries to help.





	

**Author's Note:**

> heres to my friends, to whom i always send them pictures of their fav animals when they're doing badly (especially shizuruu)

It’s hard watching Luffy pound his fists into the ground and cry like he’s never done it in his life. The young man, whose face was so tight with determination and vigour a few days before, who kept coming back up not only in the Marine HQ Battle, but in Impel Down when he should have by long been deader than _dead_ – is now on his knees and sobbing his terribly wounded heart out in front of the world.

Jinbei has no idea what to do. He’s a pirate, not a counsellor. Before he can walk towards Luffy, the man – no, the _boy **,**_ because he’s still just a _boy_ , a teenager with far too much heart for this world – slams his head into the ground along with his hands. The former Shichibukai’s heart grows heavier in his chest the more he watches. Even though he’s given Luffy wise words of advice, and watched him count up the things he still has, it’s not hard to see that he’s still mourning Ace.

But if Ace’s words in Impel Down, and Luffy’s fierce dedication to him and reaction to his death are anything to go by, it’s obvious why. A person you had such close bonds with doesn’t go away painlessly. They’d been deeply connected, those brothers.

But Jinbei doesn’t know what else do to or say beside what he already has.

So he just sits and watches.

–

The world around Luffy is cold.

His crew are all scattered over the world, and he doesn’t know where they are. The Thousand Sunny must be so confused about her crew. Both of his brothers are dead, and there’s not a thing in the world that can’t tell him he’s not the reason for it. He’s useless and weak. Jinbei’s words may have brought him back to a reality a little more, but it’s still not enough to drive out the thoughts that _he wasn’t strong enough to protect Ace, who’s always protected him_ and that _he couldn’t even protect his crew_. He wants the warmth of an embrace, but he’s a man. He really shouldn’t.

The world around Luffy is cold. But like Law said, that might just be from the blood loss.

Luffy pounds his fists into the ground again.

–

Jinbei looks on as Luffy slams into the forest floor a final time, then curls up, still crying his heart out. He really should do something, but he’s not sure what. Holding Luffy seems awfully patronizing, but at this point he doesn’t know what else to do, than maybe hit him or yell at him. They worked before; but Jinbei doesn’t like repeating himself, and he’s not sure it will have the same effect the second time. He stands up and slowly walks over to where Luffy is curled up, and touches his shoulder softly, taking care not to prod too hard and reopen too many wounds.

The boy twitches.

“Get up, Luffy.”

“Leave me alone. I need time to think,” is the weak, hiccupping reply.

“You don’t seem like the type to _think_ , I’m just giving you something I _think_ you need right now,” Jinbei answers sternly, and then flinches at the harshness in his voice. “Look up.”

Luffy seems to consider something for a moment, then braces his hands against the ground and pushes himself up to look at the fishman. Jinbei sits down and grabs Luffy under the armpits, making the boy wiggle.

“What’re you doing? Are you gonna throw me or somethin’?”

“Like I said, I think you need this right now.” He drags Luffy into his lap before he can protest any further, and then puts his arms around him.

“ _Hey!_ I’m not a _kid_ , y’know!” Luffy snaps indignantly between hiccups, already trying to get himself free. Jinbei just holds him tighter.

“Even adults need comfort sometimes. And technically, you are still a child by law.”

“I’m _not_! I’m a _man_ , dammit!”

“Alright, you are not. However, that is no excuse to reject comfort when it comes your way, boy.” Jinbei refuses to let go, despite Luffy’s more and more upset protests and eventually fists bashing at his chest.

It hurts, but it never befalls Jinbei to give up on comforting him.

–

After maybe half an hour, Luffy collapses into his chest, clutching at Jinbei’s clothes and crying as hysterically as he did before Jinbei picked him up. Jinbei occasionally pats him awkwardly on the back, unsure of what to do now that Luffy’s mask has cracked.

So he just lets him cry on, occasionally heaving a deep sigh at it all. Men like themselves are rarely allowed to express their feelings like this, even if they’re in tremendous pain. What a poisonous world to be born into. He feels like Luffy has internalized a lot more than just Ace’s death, even if that has a big part in his current sorrow. But, it’s not his place to ask of such things; if Luffy wants to, he will tell him.

Until then, he can only guess at what goes through the boy’s mind at such a time.

–

Eventually, after an hour (or more; Jinbei lost track of time), Luffy calms down, breathing quickly, deeply and somewhat irregularly into Jinbei’s chest. And more eventually than that, he’s finally completely calm, and lets go of Jinbei. He leans back, and takes a few deep breaths, and gets out of Jinbei’s lap to sit beside him. Then, after staring ahead for a few minutes, he says

“Jinbei… I’ve gotta get back to the shore.”

“Alright,” Jinbei says after a beat of silence, and stands up. Luffy tries to get up after him, but only ends up falling back on his butt. He tries again, with the same result. Jinbei shakes his head. “I’ll carry you. Your wounds are serious and you are obviously fatigued by crying like you did.”

Luffy wanly and weakly grins back, trying to look happy, but not really succeeding. “Really? Kinda weird that you can get that tired from just crying, but thanks.” With some help, he manages to get up on Jinbei’s back, grumbling something like “piggyback ride!” into his nape when he’s finally up. They get going after some more adjustments, and Luffy seems more relaxed than he was before; he still seems a bit sad, but that might be because he’s tired. Jinbei decides he needs a distraction.

“Luffy. How does the ocean say hello?”

“Hm? How?”

“It waves.”

It takes him a few moments to process it, but Luffy starts giggling loudly and wiggling around on his back. “That was good! Tell me another one!”

“Alright, alright,” smiles Jinbei back. “Why did the melon jump into the lake?”

“Why? Why?!”

“It wanted to be a watermelon.”

Another loud guffaw and more wiggling. “Another one! Another one!”

They walk on as Jinbei tells a few more water-related puns, Luffy lightening up a little more each time. A few of the jokes fly over his head, but he laughs anyway.

Yes, Jinbei decides. Taking care of the boy will certainly be worth it. He’ll happily keep good on the promise he made to Portgas D. Ace.

**Author's Note:**

> jhshfkfsdg i hope i wrote luffy and jinbei correctly... i'm not good at writin anything else than gay emos and hurt/comfort  
> so you might be able to tell ace's death absolutely Destroyed me so this might be kind of a vent fic.. myaa  
> i wrote this cause i Love luffy and hate the toxic masculinity in one piece and so i feel like lu who goes thru a LOT of traumatic stuff should generally react more to it than what we see.. myaa.. obviously he does react realistically at first but i don't think a few words from a dude will clear it up that quick.. ntm he's always smiling, and it's always genuine, but he still probably internalizes a lot. poor guy  
> but yeah this will probably only do a little for luffy and only temporarily, obviously he gets over it more in the 2 yr timejump. hehe i wish i could do that, haaha......  
> also jinbei is totally 100% absolute 10/10 the awkward dad friend who makes dad jokes when ur sad because he don't know how else to cheer you up... i want a friend like jinbei  
> ... and yes if yore a ffirst time reader i'm always this fake deep in my fics


End file.
